


a featherfaller collection

by bloosie



Series: d&d [1]
Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game)
Genre: Angst, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gore, Mild Gore, Other, lowkey hope no one reads this bc every part of these fanfics is going to hurt lmfao, mayhamps i have a problem...
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-12
Updated: 2021-01-12
Packaged: 2021-03-17 07:15:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28721190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bloosie/pseuds/bloosie
Summary: a series of oneshots written about my dnd character and our party! each chapter is a different micro to flash fiction fanfic about our campaign! an early chapter will be short descriptors for those who don't know the main characters.
Series: d&d [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2105490
Kudos: 2





	1. intro to ffs writing (alt title: that shit hurted)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> carteri dies in this chapter! that's it that's all this is. carteri death scene.

Wind whipped through the trees, plastering Avi’s hair to her head. Rain poured down, the weather seeming to mimic Avi’s mood. She clutched her fallen companion, screaming, her voice raw. It wasn’t the first scream that had left her mouth, and it certainly wouldn’t be the last. Her heart felt like it was torn in two, even though she felt like she’d only recently met these people. The rest of the group stood around them, breathing heavily, having just finished the fight where Avi wasn’t able to stand and maintain her dignity.

Back up for the sake of the story.

It was a long day, resources were low, and they’d fought battle after battle after battle. Before the worst, Avi silently bowed her head in prayer, finishing by turning her face skyward, basking in the evening sunlight. She fought harder than she’d ever fought before, throwing herself into the fight with a determination she hadn’t felt since they freed Sakura. She felt so little divine energy flowing through her, but hoped her prayer would reach Pelor in time for an intervention. 

They were quickly overwhelmed, more and more enemies joining the ranks. The fight was seemingly unwinnable. Surrounded on all sides, Avi muttered a desperate prayer under her breath. She was losing hope quickly, fearing for her life and the lives of her friends, her family. After what felt like an eternity of barely holding their ground, the heavens parted. Maliko descended, Pelor’s fire swirling around him, flames raining down onto the onslaught of attackers. Maliko touched the ground, clasping forearms with Avi and pressing his forehead to hers in greeting. “Be strong. You are not alone, Pelor is always with you.” Maliko gave Avi a final squeeze on her arms before combusting into a harmless flame.

Their moment of reprieve was over, and the battle began anew, the monstrous horde stepping over their fallen brethren to keep attacking the five defenders. Avi turned to take stock, but her timing couldn’t have been worse. As she turned, she saw an enemy’s well-aimed sword find its mark, and time slowed around her. The sword came out of her ally’s back, and in an instant his shirt was soaked deep red. Avi choked on her breath, stumbling at the same time as her friend. 

As her teammate fell to his knees, Avi dropped her weapons and rushed to him. She held him there, in the middle of a massive fight, cradling him in her arms as his breathing ebbed. She reached up, pushing Carteri’s hair out of his face, as tears clouded her vision. Her heart wrenched, and she felt like the world had been flipped on its head. Her friends were the only family she’d ever known, and Carteri the closest of all for her. He coughed, blood splattering out of his mouth, then gave Avi a shaky smile. 

“Don’t be so down, it’s just another scar!” he said, his weak voice followed by another cough. “Besides, even if something does happen, to die would be an awfully big adventure, and you know I can’t turn that down.” Yet another cough, then Carteri reached up and placed his hand on Avi’s cheek. Fear flashed in his eyes, almost too fast for her to see before he put his brave face back on. 

Avi lifted her hand to meet his, holding it gently and trying to find a way to reassure him, but she couldn’t find one. A quiet sob wracked her body, and Carteri’s grip went slack. Another sob built deep in her chest, but it was now or never if she was ever going to have a chance at saving him. She tried to cast something, anything, to heal Carteri, but the magic just wouldn’t come through to the surface. It built but wouldn’t climax. No attempt at a healing spell would go through. 

The sob in her chest turned into a scream, and wind started swirling around her. As Avi’s anguish grew, so did the clouds above her. Her cries were soon drowned out by those of the wind, her tears diluted by the heavy rain now falling. Another full-body sob, and thunder boomed overhead. Lightning flashed, touching the ground near where she sat, and several of the group’s attackers fled. A second flash of lightning, and a tree fell, taking with it a good third of the attackers. The remaining three defenders were able to take the rest out, though not without minor injury. 

It may have seemed like they had no chance in hell of making it through that fight, but the battle was won through grief and pain alone. Slowly, one by one, the group kneeled beside Avi and Carteri, adding their sorrow and support to the mix. They gently pulled Carteri out of Avi’s arms, and all ended up soaked, holding each other while in tears. 


	2. a dream

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> introducing a new character! maybe the only time they will be featured, maybe not!

Images flashed in Avi’s mind, and suddenly she no longer felt like herself. The images were fuzzy around the edges, as though viewed through a frosty window, like time had stolen the finer details and would eventually take the pictures whole.

Her reflection in the water was that of a young girl, tan skin and wild, curly hair, with a grin unmatched in pure joy. When she turned around, a man, presumably her father in their shared messy, curly hair and dark eyes, called out to her from a distance, but no sound came. Still, she ran to him, laughing gleefully, and he scooped her up, putting her on his back and carrying her to a woman who also looked like her, with similarly tanned skin and a loving smile.

The woman was going to have a baby, she knew, the same way she knew these were her dream self’s parents. They spent the day outside, eating on a picnic blanket and laughing, playing in the grass, and her parents even took her down by the docks to swim in the clear water. Ever in her peripheral vision, though, was the figure of a woman, but when she would turn her head to try to catch a solid glimpse, only sand was there, blowing in the wind.

At the end of the day, her parents tucked her into her bed, each placing a soft kiss on her forehead before departing to their own room. In the night, she awoke to what she knew was her mother’s cries, though she still couldn’t hear. She crept between rooms, trying to catch a glimpse of what was going on. Her father found her, and ushered her out quickly, bringing her back to bed, where he held her and sang until she fell asleep again.

When she opened her eyes again, the film on her vision was gone and she could hear the quiet sounds of the world around her, and it was so much colder than the room she’d been in in her dream, like the cold penetrated her bones. Before she realized what was happening, silent tears streamed down her face, her heart aching for something she had never known, something she felt like she never would.

In her dream, she had been loved, cared for, and part of a family. In her life, she had never been so much as given a second thought. She’d never made any lasting attachments besides to her church, and knew she probably never would. Even these new friends would one day leave. She had been tossed aside by the only people with any obligation to her, she now knew, thrown out like yesterday’s garbage. 

It was still dark outside, she could see, the sun not yet risen, so she knew she could steal a little more sleep, however restless it may be. She wiped the tears from her face, drawing a deep breath before she lay back down.

* * *

Marina felt the tug of sleep pulling her immediately when she closed her eyes, and she let it. Sleep was a friend she’d known her whole life, and no matter how events in her life would ever transpire, it was one of three things she was certain: sleep, Honey, and Pelor. 

Quickly, she was pulled into a dream, a vaguely familiar setting that she walked with far more confidence than she ever could had she been awake, as though she’d followed the winding streets hundreds of times over in her time. She quickly lost herself to the dream, though, rapidly losing awareness of its unreality. 

Her brisk, confident walk quickly turned into a jog of poorly-hidden panic, having caught out of the corner of her eye as she turned a glimpse of a group following her. They had been following her the whole evening. She was just trying to find somewhere to rest, somewhere to sleep for the night, without what little she had being taken from her yet again. In the glass fronts of buildings, she caught glimpses of her reflection, and it was enough to jar her back to semiconsciousness. She looked nothing like herself in life, rather she had wild, curly, dark green hair, pale blue skin, unevenly freckled, and  _ horns _ ! They weren’t very big, but she was certainly not human. As she’d noticed already, she wore a ragged shirt and pants, with no shoes, and was covered in filth from head to toe. 

Another turn, from an alley to a bustling street, she wedged her way between the people around her, working her way through the crowd as only one small as she could. Quietly, she slipped into an open doorway, stopping for a moment to catch her breath, peeking out the door to check for her pursuers. The coast was clear, it seemed they had lost her in the crowd. She let out a sigh of relief and turned around.

To say she was shocked at the room before her was an understatement. In front of her was a chapel, with several small altars with candles or incense burning. The scent in the air was thick but pleasant, smelling of said different spiced incenses and candles. A stray beam of evening sun came through a small window in the chapel, illuminating through the thin veil of smoke a golden altar with an image of a face inside a sun. 

Intrigued, she walked toward the little altar. She had no idea how to approach any of this, recognizing this building as a place of the gods, but knowing very little of them beforehand. Still, she sat before the shrine, tucking her tail to her side. Wait, her tail? She’d failed to notice that in the windows, but her dream self was unphased, having clearly had a tail her whole life. 

There she sat for a brief time, lost in every sense of the word, unsure even where to begin seeking guidance, when one of the priests approached her, sensing her unrest, and said something to her. That was when she realized there was no sound in her dream, but somehow she still understood the priest’s words. She nodded to him, following his instructions, silently opening a line of communication after lighting her first candle in the chapel. 

The dream fast forwarded a bit, days flashing by her eyes, each day returning to the temple. No longer was she dirty and clothed in rags, though she certainly wasn’t posh by any standards. She dressed humbly, and kept few belongings, giving everything she didn’t need to survive to those less fortunate. On the odd night that she still had to sleep outside, flashes of the past and being on constant guard from the world filled her mind. Still more days passed in quick images, a life before her very eyes. She saw her dream self easing the passage of the dying, healing the wounded, and sealing off all emotions to the world despite the constant feelings of pain and not belonging. 

When she woke, she reached out across the bed, forgetting that she had left days ago to look for answers and her Honey wouldn’t be there to comfort her. Being alone in that moment made everything she felt so much worse, like she was bearing for a moment the weight of the world. She’d never felt so much hurt in her life as she had in the moment she resurfaced from that dream, her heart breaking as it went out to the unknown self she’d left behind when she woke. 

For just a moment, she allowed herself weakness, but no tears came, just as they’d never come for the other in the dream. The moment passed, and she stood up, dressing in her armor once again before leaving the inn and continuing along the path toward Deryl’ict. 


End file.
